The more I see how our so called young parliamentarians conduct themselves inside and outside Parliament ,the more am tempted to agree with retired President Daniel Arap Moi that the youth should wait for tomorrow.
In his speeches, he always said : (vijana ni viongozi wakesho ) Young people are the leaders of tomorrow. His tomorrow, according to me, meant a time when these young rascals had read books on leadership, gained experience in their craft and risen through ranks to head departments in either public or private sectors.
May be he referred to such a time when the youth would have gone through life experiences to get practical life lessons which begets humility, honesty and love for others . After crying for far too long for being side-lined in the leadership of this country, a good number of young men and women got elected in the last general elections while others were nominated thanks to the new constitution.
Almost three years down the line, there is no major progressive bill brought to the National assembly which can solely be identified with a youthful Member of Parliament. Nor is there any tangible evidence of success attributed to these pretenders to the throne of 'young turks'.
A majority of them have surrendered their conscience to parochial party politics .Their job description is to execute dirty assignments at the behest of their masters, as was the case sometime back during the debate on controversial security bill.
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It is alleged that some of them don't contribute to motions in Parliament, at least according to their electorates. Yet issues affecting young people in this country are many and real. This begs the question: have we overrated youth hood? Have we sacrificed experience, knowledge and expertise at the altar of politics of age? To me, the answer is an emphatic yes.